A Speech the Color of Pink
by XxTurtletracerxX
Summary: Hollywood has produced some of the best speeches ever given. But how will Raph compare when put on the spot? Rated M for language and mature themes


**I do not own tmnt, or any other product/celebrity mentioned in this story.**

 **Writing a story with Raph and Casey was really neat, they're such good buds. :)**

 **This story contains a sensitive topic, please be aware before you read!**

 **A Speech the Color of Pink**

Raph complained about the weather of every season. Winter was to cold, fall wasn't cold enough, summer was too hot, yet spring brought unnecessary amounts of pollen.

So in truth he neither liked nor disliked one particular season to another. What he does like however is to complain.

At least he knows it though. Years of Master Splinter teaching the boys the importance of self-awareness allowed each of his sons to strive for at least a certain amount of mental insight.

So yeah, Raph knew he liked to complain, so what? So did a lot of people. And sometimes there really was a lot to complain about. Raph figured that he has enough good qualities to balance this particular fault out.

And this is one of the reasons why he is such good friends with Casey. Casey was a hell of a good listener, as long as you return the favor during his own rantings.

So there it was, on this cold winter night, when 'the snow was too soft,' and 'the thugs were too behaved,' that the two friends decided to have their own personal indoor pool party.

A while back Don had discovered an apartment building that just so happen to have an extra unit attached to the side. In this unit was an indoor workout room, yoga room, and swimming pool room that the residence could use at their leisure.

After some simple network digging Don found that although there were cameras in the other two rooms, no video camera had yet been installed inside the area meant for the swimming pool.

The unit was closed to the public at night. The other two cameras were simple to avoid as long as you stayed below its line of sight. And as long as none of them left anything out of place no one would notice come morning that a couple of freaks had taken advantage of their oversight. The whole set up made for the perfect swimming spot.

Raph and Casey casually walked past the apartment building; both bundled in an unnecessary amount of clothing, aiming for the ally to its left.

"Sure you got enough pants on Jones, or should I tell your mom to give you another pair?"

"Hey now Raph, I'm dressin like a wad for you here, so ya don't stand out like the ugly freak ya are, give me some respect!"

"Nah can't do that, you don't respect respect Jones. And I respect that."

"…...We are havin' a swimming contest."

"Uh fuck yeah we are."

"I'm gonna swim fucking laps around ya!"

"Oh good, because I just so happened to have borrowed this camcorder from Don's lab."

"What."

"And I'm going to record the whole thing."

"OH IT'S FUCKING ON NOW YOU'RE DEAD RAPH!"

"BRING IT ON JONES! And when I beat your ass I'm showing this to April!"

"…"

"Whoah Case don't get so scared ya wuss out on me."

"Raph wait."

"What?"

"Look up there; it's uh hard to see. Looks like a pink blob."

Raph followed his friend's finger to the top of the thirteen story apartment building. Although his night vision was more than excellent compared to humans it was still hard to see what Casey had spotted. But there did seem to be something. Raph squinted his eyes a bit more and leaned towards the shadowed figure. Casey mirrored the action though Raph doubted the human would be able to get much else out of the smudged shadow.

There, there it was. A thick pink jacket, long hair blowing in the breeze, shoulders, legs. It was a person all right, on the roof, on the edge.

"That's a person all right."

"Is it the foot?"

"Put your bat away Jones, unless the foot have started to let their hair lose I doubt it's them. What kunoichi doesn't put her damn hair up?"

"So it's a girl."

"Yeah."

"Dude is she-"

"I don't know Cas-"

"Is she about to jump!"

"I don't fucking know Casey!"

"Well then, let's go check."

"This isn't something we have to check up on! This isn't our job. She's probably just some slut who doesn't have any fear and gets a kick from standing on ledges. We sure as hell do!"

"Dude."

"What!"

"I can't just leave without making sure the girls ok!"

"Oh don't even Jones! Don't start calling it a girl to make her seem more important, she's just some woman!"

"It doesn't matter, if you won't help then I will."

With that Casey readjusted Don's handmade sling partially concealing his baseball bat and walked towards the building's fire escape.

"Ah geez, Case wait, you'll take too long. The damn broad will have jumped five times over by the time you get up there. Just stay here I'll be back."

"Hey thanks pal!"

"Yeah whatever buddy, but after I beat your ass at swimmin', I'm showing that video to Mikey and Leo."

"Yeah right, like you weren't going to do that anyways."

With an indistinguishable mumble, especially since Raph wasn't actually trying to say anything. He jumped horizontally as high as he could and scaled the fire escape noiselessly. He made it to the top of the roof, which the girl could only have reached if she had climbed up from the building's look out patio below.

She was wearing a thick bright pink jacket with simple Levis. Her hair was long, black, and beautiful. It blew gently in the soft steady wind. Raph took a couple silent steps forward before stopping at a distance were he knew she would be able to hear him clearly, but wouldn't be able to completely make him out. Though certain parts of his darkened outline may look a little different than a normal humans if her eyesight was real good. Raph was hoping that she wasn't in the mood to notice.

"Um, hey," Raph began nervously.

The effect was immediate. The girl let out a small 'eep,' and spun around scanning the rooftop wildly.

She was young, a teenager no doubt. And she was pretty. She had slightly pudgy cheeks, but the extra skin curved nicely around a smooth pale face. She looked frantic, and downright terrified at the moment. Subtle brown eyes narrowing intently onto his darkened form. It made a swig of guilt pass through Raph. It's not like he wanted to scare her. But how else was he supposed to get her attention?

"Who is it? Are you a janitor, Security?" the girl asked straightening her back in indignation.

"She doesn't look like a jumper," thought Raph.

He cleared his throat before answering again, hoping to tone down some of his voice's natural gruff.

"Nah, I'm just a pedestrian. Just making sure you were ok. You are on a fu- I mean a fricking roof. And to be blunt, you look like you're about to jump," said Raph predictably going for the direct approach. "So could you just do everyone a favor and back away from the edge?"

"… No," the girl said turning her back to a genuinely surprised Raph. "I don't know you, you don't fucking understand. No, fuck everybody, I am going to jump."

"Wha-, Fuck, I mean, fuck, wait!" Raph shouted fumbling with his words. The girl froze staring at the pavement below her.

Raph thought desperately. This was the point when he was supposed to say something inspirational. Something that made her see the error of her ways. This is when someone noble like Leo would remind the stupid girl about the people she would hurt when she died. When someone reminds her of all the birthdays parties she's going to miss, about the future nieces and nephews that would never get to know her. All the camping trips she won't go on, all those new movies she'll never see. She is going to miss births and funerals, tears and laughter, love and understanding. Her life, she's going to miss out on her life.

But Raph wasn't noble. And like the self-realized turtle he is, he knew that. So he thought, he thought about what words would keep him from jumping if the situation was reversed, and that's what he said.

"Fine then jump, suicide is for the weak and selfish. And if you're not strong enough to back the fuck away from that ledge then you deserve to die! You're a coward for coming up here in the fucking first place! Now just back away from that ledge. C'mon Show me how strong you are!"

The girl paused and turned her head around just enough for Raph to see the tears flowing down her cheeks, before she jumped.

Raph raced forward uselessly. He didn't understand, he had said all his trigger words. 'Bravery,' 'courage,' 'strength.' Why, why did the selfish little bitch jump!

By the time he made it to the edge there was nothing he could do. Nothing anyone could do anymore.

A moment later and a demanding vibration sounded on his belt. Raph pulled out his shell cell and answered without looking at who it was.

"Yeah?"

"Raph buddy, it's ok dude."

"Shi-, Case I don, I don't fucking understand. I fucked up man I said the wrong thing."

"….Raph dude listen to me, not everyone wants to hear the same thing man. Before anyone says anything people, people just already have these stupid Hollywood speeches in their heads that they want read to them. Ya know what I mean? It's just not your fault man."

"…yea….. I guess my speech, was just different than 'ers."

"No shit man, personally mines read by Tina Fey!"

*Hmph* "Yours would be, ya always liked em older."

"Damn straight!"

"…..Case, I just don't feel like swimming right now."

"I know bud, let's head back. I got a fire, hot chocolate, and some damn good hard liquor calling our names at home."

"Hate to break this to ya Case, but Jack Daniels hardly qualifies as hard liquor."

"Jack can get the job done son!"

*heh* "Yeah."

And with that Raph turned around heading back towards the side of the building he'd originally scaled feeling anger, directionless pitiful anger. He had a feeling that later he was going to dye one of his old punching bags pink and have a go at it. A nice simple shade of pink.

"Hurry it up ya poor excuse of da hulk!"

Or maybe he'd just draw Casey's face on it.


End file.
